Repatriation of refugees begins

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has begun repatriating Namibian refugees from Botswana. The refugees fled Namibia's north eastern Caprivi region four years ago, during armed conflict between Namibian forces and separatist rebels. "On Monday, the first group of 267 people travelled more than 500-km in trucks and buses from Dukwe refugee camp in north eastern Botswana to a transit point, 50-km into Namibia's Caprivi province - a strip of Namibian territory wedged between Botswana, Zambia and Angola," UNHCR said in a statement. An ambulance and UNHCR vehicles accompanied the vehicles returning refugees. Another group of refugees was to be taken home Wednesday. "A total of 853 people had signed up for the repatriation out of nearly 2,000 who have fled Namibia since the 1998 clashes," UNHCR said. The return followed an earlier UNHCR led go-and-see visit to Caprivi. On 24 June five representatives of Namibian refugees in Dukwe, Botswana, visited their homes in Namibia to familiarise themselves with conditions in the areas they had fled. UNHCR had earlier told IRIN: "The principle of go-and-see is as old as UNHCR itself and aims at refugees making an on-the-spot assessment of the security situation, interacting with their relatives, seeing the state of their properties. The visits also ensure that there are adequate facilities in their areas of return - such as education, health, water supply and any other facilities necessary for a return in safety and dignity."